Ever seen the T-Shirt or sticker- “There is no cloud…it’s just someone else’s computer”?

The cloud is a concept not a place. The cloud is the idea that you can access your data, your applications, your whatever, from anywhere, anytime, as long as you have an internet connection.

There are several types of clouds. You can have large public clouds dispersed geographically (think itunes or your quickbooks online account). You may rent a private segment of a large public cloud for your company (your company contracts to Amazon to host their servers). Or you can build your own private cloud (you buy the servers, plug them in to your own Colo or your office and use Citrix or something to give everyone access). No matter what type of cloud you have, this data and your applications exist somewhere, physically on someone’s server(s). Maybe your servers or maybe someone’s you pay for the service. But it does exists somewhere or perhaps (and hopefully) multiple somewheres.

The concept of the cloud is about access. You’ve established where the data or applications are, then you have to give your users (or the public) access to that information or those applications from anywhere and preferably from any type of device. Once you’ve done that. Viola, you have a cloud.

This doesn’t need to be a mystery. It does however require planning and forethought to design the right solution for you and your business’s needs. There is no one size fits all/no product fits all no matter what you’ve been told. We have great products and great solutions, but even we’ll admit that we don’t fit everyone. Sometimes we all have to be big enough to admit that.

Have a great day and stay out of the fog….and especially the smog!

Richline Technical Services is a Managed IT Services Provider headquartered in Corpus Christi, TX. We provide helpdesk and network management to small and medium businesses as well as consulting and network design services to large companies, city and county governments as well as school districts.

Josh Richline is one of the Owners of RTS and is certified by Microsoft, Citrix, ShoreTel, Sonicwall, Lifesize, Ruckus, US Sailing and others. He specializes in VoIP, large networking projects and sailing.